A narrow depression or groove; a slit, aperture, or opening, as in a door or piece of machinery. A position in a sequence, plan, or schedule. I can slot you in for a haircut at 2 p.m.

A compartment in a machine or vehicle for receiving money or cargo, or for storing papers and other items. (informal) A small space in a file or other container; a pocket.

a part of a machine that receives coins or paper money for insertion into the payout mechanism. a compartment in a computer that holds data or instructions for execution. (computers) a portion of a disk or other storage medium on which information can be stored and accessed quickly. (software) a space for storing programs and data in a computer or in a system, especially one that allows fast searching or retrieval of information.

In the USA, a slot machine is a gambling device that pays out winnings according to the results of a random number generator (RNG). Charles Fey’s 1907 invention allowed multiple coin indentations, automatic payouts and was the first to use three reels. It was later popularized by Las Vegas casinos.

The earliest slot machines were mechanical; later, they were electromechanical. The earliest were levers with bars that operated the reels, but in the mid-1990s they were replaced by computers. Many modern slot machines still have levers, but some have buttons and screens for selecting options.

Psychologists Robert Breen and Marc Zimmerman have found that video slot machine players reach debilitating levels of involvement with gambling three times as rapidly as those who play traditional casino games. It is important for people to establish a loss limit and walk away once they have reached it. Two cases of software errors in 2010 resulted in erroneous jackpot indications, but state gaming laws did not require casinos to honour the payouts.

A position in a queue or list. The term is also used to describe the egress from a queue or list, especially an egress from a computer terminal, that is supervised by an operator.

An area in a game of chance or a calendar date that has been allocated to an event or task. I have slotted you in for a hair appointment at 2 p.m.

In computing, a slot is a container that can hold and manage dynamic content. A slot can be passive or active, and it may reference a repository item or point to a renderer that specifies how the content should be presented on the page.

A slot is mapped to a slot type, which determines how the bot will process the information in that slot. For example, if the user says “I want to book two executive rooms for three nights starting tomorrow,” the bot will match that to a room slot type. Dialog Engine supports synonyms for each slot type, which can be added from the Slots tab of the Utterance Editor.